


A year in magic

by FinduilasLissesul



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, M/M, Magic, Slow Burn, main focus is fruk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-04-25 15:36:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 18,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14381688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FinduilasLissesul/pseuds/FinduilasLissesul
Summary: The daily lives of the gang at Hogwarts over the course of a year.There will be drama, romance, comedy, and magic of course.Purely for the fun of it.





	1. Potions

**Author's Note:**

> There's only short chapters at the beginning, but they'll get more extensive as we get further into the story and the plot develops.

Arthur studied the text book on the desk in front of him intently. Then he turned back to his cauldron and stared down at the root on the cutting board. He was supposed to add three of them. Or perhaps was it three pieces? And then he should stir clock-wise. He was almost certain it was clockwise. Frowning, he took up the knife and began cutting the vegetable. All around him, the other students were well through this faze already and had begun adding the goat hairs.

“Hey, eyebrows! You getting any further?” Gilbert had noticed his lagging behind and was so kind as to point it out for him. Arthur just glared back. He did not need Mr. Rahimi to notice his struggles. 

“It’s going terrific, now leave me alone and concentrate on your own bloody potion.” Gilbert’s cauldron had begun blowing yellow bubbles, and he was certain that was not described in the recipe. Arthur went back to cutting his root into four pieces before adding them to his potion. 

“Yo, Arthur.”

The Slytherin growled.

“What, Alfred?” 

“It was supposed to be three pieces, and not that big either.” The Gryffindor exclaimed all this with a huge smile plastered to his face. “You might as well just throw it all away.”

“Why? I am sure just a little bit more of this root can’t possibly hurt.” He raised an eyebrow. Surely this tiny vegetable couldn’t be that important. 

“Whatever, dude.”

And how wrong he was. At the end of the class, Arthur had managed to do several mistakes in his potion brewing, which had resulted in a bright blue soup in his cauldron. And when Professor Rahimi tried to dip a spoon down in it, the colour just changed into yellow before it crumbled away. It did not seem as if Arthur would be passing the class this year either.


	2. A late night snack

“Hush, be quiet, Alfred.” Matthew tried the best he could to keep his brother from making too much noise. It was the middle of the night and everyone else at the school was asleep, they were the only ones who were wandering around the hallways. The entire castle had such an eerie atmosphere at night. 

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, Mattie, no one’s going to hear us.” Alfred had convinced his brother to accompany him to the school’s kitchen, located just by the Hufflepuff’s common room. He wanted to stock up on some snack that he could keep under his bed in case he ever became hungry in the middle of the night – just like now. 

“But what if one of the teachers comes and sees us?” Matthew had only said yes because he knew Alfred would do it regardless if he went with or not, and he could at least try to keep him out of trouble. 

“Relax, they won’t be out this late. Now, where was the entrance to the kitchen again?” 

“Just around the corner.” Matthew sighed as he followed behind the Gryffindor. As they rounded the corner they became standing in front of the door leading in to the kitchen. Alfred pumped the air while he ran over and opened the door. After they entered Alfred took his time to gather as much as he possibly could carry to bring with him, all while stuffing what he couldn’t carry into his mouth. Matthew was reluctant at first, but then did as his brother and was overjoyed when he found the storage of maple syrup. It all seemed to go rather well right until it was time to leave. As soon as they stepped out of the room, they almost dropped everything as someone cleared their throat right by their side. Horrified, the looked over to the sound.

“So this is where you’re sneaking out to in the middle of the night, Matthew?” A figure stepped forth and they both recognized the prefect of the Hufflepuff house, Carlos. “Are you really sinking to your brother’s level?” He shook his head and Matthew felt the shame of raiding the kitchen. 

“I-I’m sorry, Carlos. We didn’t think anyone would mind. Please don’t take any points from us because of this.”

“I can’t just ignore this.” Carlos put his hands on his hips and huffed. He had nothing against Matthew, he rather like the boy actually, but he couldn’t just overlook that they both were out of their bed this late a t night and taking food from the kitchen. And he really wanted to punish Alfred for this.

“I have ice cream?” Matthew softly spoke up. It didn’t take long to make up his mind.

“All right, but just this once.”


	3. Disruption

“Now, boys, can you tell me why you are currently standing here in my office, and not attending your classes?” Romulus glanced over his shoulder down at the Ravenclaw and Slytherin, glaring at each other, standing behind him. The one with long, golden hair was currently grasping his nose while the other had his hair standing straight up in the air and coloured a hideous green, like spikes, revealing a pair of huge eyebrows. The latter answered reluctantly. 

“Because we disturbed a class and… we don’t know how to reverse these spells.” He looked away and blushed. The Ravenclaw only frowned as he spoke hushed to the other boy.

“This is not my fault. If only you could have not commented on my charms-”

“Well, if you’d actually done what we’d been asked, then-”

“You fucking enlarged my beautiful nose!” The Ravenclaw revealed his now enormous nose, covering most of his face. “You ruined my face!” 

“You ruined my hair! I can impale my hands on these spikes!” 

“Well, the green matches the poison in your heart as well as your house!” 

“Boys, please!” The headmaster looked sternly at the pair. “I’d thought both of you were more mature than this – especially you, Kirkland, as a prefect none the less.” The addressed boy glared at the Ravenclaw as the golden haired one stuck out his tongue. Romulus shook his head. “What am I going to do with you two? This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about your disputes, you know.” 

The headmaster paced back and forth in front of the two troublemakers while he tried to think of a suitable punishment for them. 

“Monsieur, please, if you would reverse the spells… that would be very appreciated.” The French boy had begun hiding his nose again, and the Slytherin was obviously a bit ashamed. He could tell they both did not mean to hurt the other; the hexes they had used was relatively harmless. Still: they had disrupted a class and needed to be taught a lesson, so he could not go too easy on them. 

“Fifty points each from Ravenclaw and Slytherin will be taken and you are both in detention. There, you’ll be polishing all the armours in the main hallway without using magic.” With a flick of his wand he reduced the nose of the Ravenclaw and returned the Slytherin’s hair to normal. “Will that be enough to teach the two of you a lesson?” 

“Yes, Sir.” Came the muffled reply.

“Good! Now get out of my sight and meet in the main hall at nine o’clock tomorrow evening.” He waved a hand at the two boys and turned back around to his desk while they slowly walked out of his office.


	4. Detention

The two boys were standing together in the main hall, the clock almost nine, waiting to receive their punishment. The hallways were almost empty this time of the day, everyone had retreated to their common rooms, to busy doing the last of their homework or just simply preparing for the night. As professor Beilschmidt came walking down the hallway they both straightened up. He was not a man to be messed with, who everyone secretly was a bit afraid of, even his children. 

“Kirkland and Bonnefoy.” As he came to a halt in front of the pair of students, he stared down at them. “I’m very disappointed in both of you.” They looked down at the floor in shame. The head of the Slytherin house dropped a metal bucket that hit the ground with a loud clank. “Now, get to work. I want to see all of these armours glowing by the end of the night. I will also be confiscating your wands until you’re finished.”

Reluctantly, Arthur and Francis handed over their wands to the professor, who stuffed them into his cloak before he turned around and walked away. He obviously had better things to do than to watch two delinquents all night. 

“And this is the point where they expect us to overcome our differences and work together to accomplice this task, I suspect?” Arthur picked up the bucket, which had all the polish and cloth they needed.

“As if you’d manage to work together with anyone.” Francis playfully cocked an eyebrow at his fellow student. 

“Just because you’re impossible to work with doesn’t mean that I have problems with other, normal people. Now, let’s just get this over with.” Arthur threw a cloth and a box of polish at Francis. “You can take that side of the hallway, and I’ll take this one.” 

“You love ordering me around, don’t you?” Francis stuck out his tongue as he walked over to do as Arthur said. 

“Oh, shut up.” Arthur rolled his eyes as he stepped up to begin the work on the first armour. “As if you’d do a proper job anyway. If we don’t get this approved because you’ve been doing poor work, I’ll colour your hair green for a week.”

“Ah, you wouldn’t do that, right? Even you can’t sink so deep?”

“Do you want to find out?” Arthur smirked at him over the hallway.

“You’re a horrible person, Arthur.” Francis shook his head and began his work. 

When professor Beilschmidt came back later that evening, they were all done. They had ended up competing in who could finish their row of armour the fastest, and possibly made a new record in metal-polishing at the school.


	5. The forbidden forest

“Is this really such a good idea?”

“No one will even notice that we’re gone, relax.”

“No, I meant on the behalf of our safety.” Francis hissed at Gilbert as they walked with Antonio down the path away from the school and towards the huge forest the edge of the school grounds. 

“Come on, going into the forbidden forest at night is a must for every student. Now that we’re in our fifth year it about time we did it! And we’ll probably run into some awesome creatures and we’ll be able to tell everyone about it tomorrow.” Red eyes sparkled in the moon light.

“Antonio, please help me. Are you really okay with this?” Francis felt helpless, but he wasn’t about to abandon his friends; what if they needed him? 

“I can’t wait!” Antonio grinned. “It’ll be an adventure, Francis. It’ll be fun.” 

“I highly doubt it.” Francis deadpanned. “It’s forbidden for a reason, you know.”

The other two refused to listen so Francis had no choice but to follow them. As they stood at the edge of the forest, they all paused for a second. 

“It’s a bit more intimidating at night time…” Gilbert gazed into the darkness in front of him. Then, he took the first step into the woods. Francis groaned as Antonio jumped in after him. There really was no return now. 

As they wandered in between the huge trees, the darkness enveloped them so that they could only see a few metres in front of them at any time. All three of them used their wands as a light source to guide them. Francis had his heart up in his throat the entire time. 

“Where are we even going? There’s nothing out here, how long do we have to be here before we can turn back?”

“Oh, come on, Francis. Don’t be such a sissy.” Gilbert grinned back at him. “We’re just going for a stroll, we’ll go back soon.” 

“So, Francis.” Antonio slowed down to walk by his side. “How’s your crush on Arthur working out?”

“Really? You want to talk about that now?” Francis huffed. “It’s going great.”

“Oh, yeah? Then how come you two aren’t together yet?” Gilbert snickered at him.

“Just because I have a crush on him doesn’t mean that he wants to be together with me, Gilbert.” Francis rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah? Have you asked him yet?”

“… no.”

“Francis, you’ve been pining over him since forever! Do something about it already.” Antonio sighed. 

“It’s not that easy! You go do something about your crush on Lovino, and then you’ll see how hard it is.” At that Antonio just laughed.

“You know I can’t do that. We all know he’s just my friend. He sees me like a brother and there’s nothing to do about it.”

“Don’t you have a crush on anyone, Gilbert? It’s no fair that Antonio and I have to suffer through this by ourselves and you’re just happy to be alone.” 

“That’s none of your business.” Gilbert blushed slightly while he kept on leading them through the forest. 

“You can’t keep secrets from us, Gil.” Antonio raised an eyebrow at his friend. 

“Yes, Gilbert, come on and tell us now.” 

“I don’t-”

Suddenly, a giant creature dropped straight down in front of them from one of the trees. They only caught a glint of long hairy feet and eight black orbs that stared at them. With high-pitched shrieks and shouts, they all sprinted back the way they came as fast as they could.


	6. Wizard's chess

The Slytherin frowned slightly as he stared down at the board on the table. The Great Hall was almost empty save for a few students who had not finished their dinner yet. A calm atmosphere hung over the hall as small chatter and cutlery against plates made up the only sound. 

The blonde-haired boy had a pin holding up the bangs on the left side of his face, uncovering deep, mysterious blue eyes, currently concentrated on the board game in front of him. Opposite him sat a taller Hufflepuff in equal concentration.

“Queen to D5.” The Slytherin made his move while the Hufflepuff sighed. 

“There is no fun playing with you, Sigurd.” The Hufflepuff rested his chin on his palm and pouted as the other hand tipped over the white king. “You always win. It is easy to think you only win because you play with that stupid Gryffindor all the time, but now I am beginning to think he is not so stupid after all.”

“Well, although he is not stupid, I think it’s fair to say you were a tougher opponent, Ivan.” The Slytherin looked bored as he collected the pieces and lined them up again, ready for another game. “Do you want to play again?” 

“No, it’s all right. I don’t always handle losses very well, so I better not get too invested.” Ivan put up a smile before he rose to his feet. “Do tell me if you ever lose, though. I would love to be there to watch.” And with that he began walking towards the exit as he waved goodbye over his shoulder. 

Sigurd watched him go and then turned back to the board on the dining table in front of him. He was sure Ivan would have played a lot better if his chess pieces had not been so scared of him. But not good enough to have beaten him of course. 

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by two students slumping down on the benches, one across the table and the other to his left. Looking up, he found two of his Slytherin friends watching him. Both seemed slightly impressed.

“What?” Sigurd raised an eyebrow at them. 

“You just beat Ivan in a chess game.” Vlad spoke up with awe evident in his voice and Arthur watch with something akin to worry. “That’s awesome! How good are you exactly?”

“Now, Vlad: I’m not sure this is a very good idea.” Arthur voiced his concern. Sigurd was not entirely sure he understood what was going on.

“I’m quite good. Why?”

Vlad grinned mischievously as Arthur sighed and shook his head. 

“We are going to make some money together.” 

“As a prefect I cannot support this. It would be betting on games and illegal.”

“Oh, come on, Arthur. It’s just for fun.” Vlad smirked at the other boy. “And how fun wouldn’t it be to see Alfred losing at something once? Or to see Francis taken down from his high horse? There are a lot of students here pretty full of themselves who would not hesitate to bet a lot of money on their victory.”

Both Sigurd and Vlad could already see he had won Arthur over. The temptation was just too big and a smile was currently forming on his face. He glanced up to look at Sigurd.

“What do you say?” 

Sigurd let a small grin play at his lips.

“Bring it on.” 

In total they ended up with a gain of five Galleons, twenty-three Sickles, and sixty-five Knuts each, in addition to the satisfactory of witnessing a crushing defeat several times, for not only Alfred and Francis, but also Elizaveta, Felix, Rodrick, and Gilbert. That was until they were discovered by the head of the Hufflepuff house and the money was confiscated and Slytherin had lost a hundred points. At least there was no doubt anymore who was the best chess player in school, and just for that, Sigurd earned fifty points from the Slytherin head teacher.


	7. Missed you at Halloween

Francis sat patiently on a bench between the stony hallways in the dungeon. That was the problem with these passwords for the common rooms. He could never just visit when he wanted to, he had to either be accompanied by someone from that house or sneak in while someone came out. He had already waited for fifteen minutes, sitting on the bench with a box in his hands. With a sigh, he sagged further down back against the hard, cold wall behind him. It was already nearly ten in the morning, and not a single Slytherin had exited the room. He guessed the party they had held last night had been tough on them. The Slytherin house had decided to have their very own private party in their common room on Halloween instead of feasting with the other houses in the Great Hall. Not to say Francis did not have a great time last night with many of his friends, however with both Gilbert and Arthur missing he had felt… empty. Something had just felt wrong. For some reason, it had been Arthur he had missed the most. Of course, he knew why. And that had made him feel kind of desperate. Jealous, if you wanted. Francis had actually been looking forward to celebrate Halloween with Arthur for a long time now, and then he goes and does so with somebody else. The Slytherin’s lack of presence last night had weighed down on him. Did Arthur not want to spend Halloween with him? At that moment, the door swung open with a creaking sound, and Gilbert, Alfonso, and Lars came strolling out. Francis got to his feet as soon as he heard the hinges move. The three of them stopped in their tracks as they saw the Ravenclaw.

“Bonjour, mes amis, how are you feeling today?” Francis began walking towards them.

“Hey, dude. Just… awesome.” Gilbert tried to stifle a yawn as he stretched.

“Tough night?” Francis smirked.

“You have no idea!”

“Around twelve, Professor Beilschmidt had decided to check on us.” The Portuguese boy continued with eager. “And of course, we were all pretty wasted then, right. And so, we had to try to hide all the alcohol while half of us could barely stand. Luckily for us, we had thought of setting up a warning spell at the entrance of the dungeon and hiding the alcohol was pretty easy, right? But then he came and we all tried to look sober and all chill, and I swear; he had the most disappointed look I’ve ever seen in my life.” Alfonso laughed at that. “Although, I think punishing his whole house for drinking was a bit much, so he just pretended like nothing – even when Vlad tried to ask him for a duel for better grades – and then he just left.”

“So… quite the eventful evening then?” Francis raised an eyebrow at that. Clearly, they had all had a lot of fun. Arthur probably had as well. “So, everyone else is sleeping then?”

“I think a few of them are awake.” Lars looked over at the door. “Probably just too hangover or too lazy to move.”

“And… how is eh-” Francis cleared his throat. “How’s Arthur?” Alfonso did nothing to hide his smug smile as Gilbert answered. 

“I think he’s still asleep.” He eyed his friend with a smirk. “You can probably just go inside and wait until he awakes, you know.”

Francis fought the heat in his cheeks as he stared at the Slytherin with an unimpressed look.

“I will then.” 

They all waved a small goodbye to each other as the Slytherins went up the stairs, towards the Great Hall, and the Ravenclaw entered the common room. As the door slipped shut behind him, Francis found himself all alone. There was not anyone else currently there, just a huge mess with pillows and litter draped all over misplaced armchairs. Francis – with the box still in his hands – tried to step outside most of the mess while he walked into the room. There was this green light around, which came from somewhere he could not see, but Francis assumed it was from the lake above. 

At the back of the room was an open hallway, leading to the dorms. Francis stepped down the hallway carefully not wake any potential sleeping Slytherins. Opening a door to his right, the Frenchman peeked inside, and when he saw it was the boys’ dormitory, he opened the door fully and sneaked inside. It felt weird walking down the row of beds with people sleeping in them, and he hoped dearly that Arthur was awake when he found him. He was not. 

In the fifth bed to the left, the Ravenclaw found who he had been searching for. Pausing at the foot of the bed, Francis took in the sight of the Brit lying sprawled out underneath the sheets, with his face buried in the pillow and hair pointing out in every direction. At loss of what to do, the French sat down beside his friend, at the foot of the bed, and made himself comfortable. He honestly hadn’t thought this far. Listening to slight snoring from somewhere in the dorm, he leaned over the sleeping Arthur and put the box down on the nightstand. There he also saw a book the Slytherin evidently had been reading and picked it up to skim through. With a look at the front Francis raised an eyebrow; he had not known Arthur enjoyed muggle works, but he had apparently begun reading those about Sherlock Holmes. Flipping through a few pages, Francis made himself comfortable on the bed, with Arthur sleeping unknowingly at the other end. 

After reading about three pages, the body in the next bed over began stirring and Francis put the book down carefully as not to alert the awakening boy. A blonde head and frightening, deep blue eyes came into sight and glared a second or two at the Ravenclaw. 

“What are you doing here?” The boy mumbled still half asleep. 

“Err… visiting?” Francis became slightly uncomfortable at the eerie aura surrounding the two of them emitting from the other boy. “How are you feeling, Sigurd? Late night?” 

“Argh, don’t talk to me.” The Slytherin pulled the sheets closer around him and curled in on himself. Then Francis came up with an idea.

“Then I suppose you don’t want a cup of coffee either then?” He smirked when the Norwegian went completely still beneath the covers and then watched as he sat up in bed. 

“Please.” 

Francis then fetched the box he had left on Arthur’s nightstand and opened it. He had originally intended the coffee for himself as Arthur drank the tea he had brought, but he figured he’d just make something else for himself later. The other boy needed it more than him anyway. After Sigurd had taken a few sips, his whole demeanour turned around and Francis felt more welcome. Still, Sigurd fixed him with his eyes and raised an eyebrow.

“Why were you here again?”

“You know, just visiting Mr. Eyebrows here.” He pointed to the sleeping boy in the bed. Sigurd still looked at him.

“You know he’s asleep?”

“Oui, I can see that.” Francis rolled his eyes. “I’m waiting for him to wake up.”

“So… you are going to surprise him.” Sigurd looked over at the box where he had gotten his coffee from. “With tea… and breakfast… in bed? Quite a romantic gesture that. I’m sure he’ll be ecstatic.” The irony was heavy in his voice.

Francis huffed and dragged a hand through his golden locks while he looked down at his sleeping friend. Perhaps this had been a bad idea? Because when you put it like that, Arthur might actually begin suspecting something. While Francis was rethinking his whole plan, Sigurd spoke up again.

“He’d really appreciate it, though.” Francis whipped his head up to stare confused at the other. He continued. “He’s just too stubborn to admit it.” Francis lips curled up into a small smile.

“And you can tell?”

“You don’t have to take my word for it. But if he wakes up and finds out you’ve been here and then left without talking to him, he’ll be very dissapointed. For one reason or the other. And then you’ll definitely not know.”

Francis frowned a bit at that.

“What are you implying here?”

“I’m not implying anything. Just stating some facts.” He took a sip from the coffee cup. “Just the fact that you are here, the morning after a Slytherin-only party, with all this speaks volumes, don’t you think?” He rose from his bed and moved to walk out of the dorm. “Thanks for the coffee.”

Francis watched silently as Sigurd exited the room. Hopefully, that was not something he had to worry about in the future. At that moment, the boy in the bed he was currently sitting in, began moving and Francis had to shift his attention to a more pressing matter. He sat quietly as Arthur stirred and stretched out his arms while he turned over only to freeze completely when he saw who was on the end of his bed. 

“What the bloody hell are you doing here?” He looked utterly lost and shocked so Francis could do no more than grin while he answered with a smile. 

“Just visiting.”

“The fuck you are!” At this Arthur quickly raised a hand to his head, frowned greatly, and slumped back down onto the mattress while groaning. “Seriously, Francis; I’m not in the mood for your antics today.”

“Relax; I’m not here with my antics – as you say – today, cher.” Francis paused, studying the other with soft eyes. “Would you like some tea?” The Slytherin lay quiet for a few seconds before he mumbled a reply. 

“Perhaps.”

“I’ll take that as a yes then.” Francis bent over to fetch his box on the nightstand and fished out a cup of warm black tea, which he gave to Arthur as the other sat up in his bed. While the Slytherin sipped his tea, the Frenchman picked up a croissant from the box as well and gave to the other boy. 

“How’s the hangover?”

“I’ve had worse.”

“I’m sure you have. You don’t look that bad – I’d expect it to be worse.”

“What? Are you saying I can’t hold my liquor?!”

“I know you can’t, cher.” Francis smirked. “Remember that time when we were with Ivan and Yao, and you-” 

“Yes, yes thank you, I remember. And that was one time!” 

“I have plenty more if you want to hear.”

“No thank you, that’s enough from you.” Arthur raised an eyebrow in curiosity while he drank from his cup. “But seriously, why are you here, frog?”

“I was bored, and afraid I had missed an – from what I hear – eventful party last night. So, I thought I might come down and take a look, and maybe hear some stories from what happened? You know how much I like gossip, rosbif.” At that the Ravenclaw winked. “Let’s just say the tea is a bribe.”

“Oh really?” Arthur smirked. “If this croissant is any good, I might consider it.”

“My food is always fantastic and never less than that.”

“You didn’t make this.”

“Well, no, but just for the record: I’m a superb cook, and you’d be considered lucky to ever even taste something I’d made.”

“And I don’t have that privilege yet?” Arthur looked jokingly unimpressed with him.

“That, cher, is something you have to earn.” At this Francis winked and put up his most charming smile. 

“I’m sure it tastes rubbish anyway, so I’m better off without. In fact: you’d probably use the opportunity to poison or hex me.” 

“I thought you’d think better off me, cher. I brought you tea in bed after all – had I wanted to hex you, you’d noticed already.”

“Well, I just never know with you, do I?”

Francis took a few seconds to lovingly study the other while he took a new sip from the cup. His hair was everywhere and the Brit had heavy bags below his eyes. Arthur generally looked worn out, but he still had the energy to bicker with Francis. 

“So, did you have any good stories to tell me?” Francis grinned while Arthur raised an eyebrow and a small smirk played at his lips.

“Perhaps.”


	8. Love is in the air

Arthur and Francis sat side by side on the bench at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, both of them fixating on the same thing, over at the Hufflepuff table next to them. Their food remained untouched as they had completely forgotten about it. Instead they watched as the two students talked together. It was almost unbelievable seeing Ludwig laughing quietly and smiling like that, but there he was; having a delightful conversation with the Hufflepuff. Feliciano had his full attention on the German and gestured with his arms while he told him about what had happened last Defence against Dark Arts-class. Ludwig was listening to every word intently. 

“That is so weird.” Arthur spoke up, almost in awe, to Francis with a mere whisper.

“Ludwig usually never smiles like that with anyone else.” The Ravenclaw leant his chin onto his left hand as he used the other to lift his toast.

“So weird.”

“Do you think they know?”

“Know what?” Arthur turned over to look at Francis while he furrowed his thick eyebrows. 

“That they’re in love of course.” Francis sighed while he had still not taken his eyes of the pair. “Can’t you feel it? The air is practically thick with it.”

Arthur quietly turned back to look at them again. Feliciano was giggling over something the German had said. The Slytherin hummed as an affirmation in reply to Francis. 

“It’s such a beautiful thing to watch, you know. Here we are merely witnesses to love unfolding before our very own eyes, and they do nothing to hide it. It is one of the purest form of love that exists.”

“As far as I know though; they’re not really together, Francis.”

“Hmm, I know.” Francis groaned. “It is so frustrating to watch! They should just confess already!”

Arthur smirked at the Frenchman, who was almost ripping out his own hair from sheer frustration.

“All in good time, you know.” Arthur sipped his tea while Francis huffed away his long, golden locks from his face. 

“In good time is not soon enough.” Francis pouted as he munched away at his toast. “It will kill me long before that. Seriously: this makes my heart ache!”

“You complaining about it won’t make it happen, idiot!” 

At that, Feliciano held up a fork, with some pudding on it, to Ludwig’s mouth, and he opened up and ate it. Then Francis stood up from his seat and shouted across the hall.

“Just kiss already!” 

Arthur had to physically drag him down again.


	9. We should be studying

“Eyebrows, so this Fanged Geranium essay, have you done it yet?” Francis had just pulled out a fresh parchment and a quill and ink ready on the table. To his right sat Arthur, with books on herbology already open and spread out in front of him. Further down the table sat other students, who had preferred studying in the library on this rainy day as well.

“I have about half a page. I’m just done with the description of it, so now I going to write about where to locate the plant.” Arthur smirked back. “Why? You need any help, frog?” He had already been sitting at the table, working for about half an hour already, the Ravenclaw just arriving. “I should have suspected that.”

“Fuck you, I’ve very good grades in herbology, and you know it.” Francis glared at him. “But you perhaps did not know: The Fanged Geranium have a lot of applications in cooking and potions, and so I figured you might acquire some help.” The Ravenclaw stuck out his tongue as a playful taunt. 

“Me? Why would I need the help of someone like you? I have plenty of books here if I need it. And books don’t talk!”

“Ah! You!” Francis glared at the other, the two of them almost butting heads. “You’re a pest.” He growled the last part at the Slytherin. 

“Better than being a frog!” The Brit’s smirk agitated the Frenchman, who grabbed one of Arthur’s books and hit him – not too hard – on his shoulder. The Slytherin in turn tried to wrestle the book from the other after he had recovered from the hit. All of which resulted in the two of them toppling over each other and books and parchment flying everywhere, and when Arthur began tickling Francis, the other students had had enough. 

Out in the hallway, the pair stood, ruffled and without any books or parchment, huffing and slightly out of breath. Arthur groaned.

“Argh, fuck that paper.” He rubbed his eyes in tiredness and bent forward. “It isn’t until Friday and I was probably going to fuck up the potion part anyway.” Francis chuckled.

“I’ll help you with that, you know.” Arthur turned up to glare at him. “In exchange for you helping me with the plant itself, of course.” The Ravenclaw winked at the other. Arthur turned his head away and mumbled the response. 

“As if you could’ve done it without me.” That earned him a smack on the shoulder.

“Don’t get cheeky with me, rosbif.” The Slytherin just stuck out his tongue and Francis sighed. “Anyway, want to grab a bite in the Great Hall and then go up to the Ravenclaw tower?” Arthur raised an eyebrow.

“Your tower?”

“Oui, I think you would love the view from it in this rainy weather. You can even hear the drops hitting the roof.” Francis grinned at him. Arthur seemed to contemplate the offer for a few seconds before he hesitantly came with a reply.

“You think we could bring some hot tea up there?”

“Why, of course! Although, I’m so hot you probably won’t need it.” Francis smiled brightly and laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling. 

“Git.”

“Just kidding, cher.” Francis winked again as they began walking down the hall together. “Oh, you won’t believe the thing I heard from Felix here the other day.”

“Really?” Arthur smirked as they walked side by side. “Do tell.”


	10. Hide and seek?

“Omg, this is so boring.” Alfred let his head fall down on the open book in front of him. “Can’t we do something fun instead?”

They were all in the Great Hall, studying. The whole group had decided to get together that night to catch up on the homework they were all lagging behind in. As a study group, they could all contribute to the others in their best subjects. It was around seven, a few hours had passed since dinner and there were few students outside their common rooms. 

“What? Wasn’t the Defence-Against-Dark-Arts-essay quite the thrill you were hoping for?” Arthur didn’t even spare a glance in the Gryffindor’s direction, focused on his own essay in Potions. 

“No! It sucks.”

“Too bad, it’s due Tuesday.”

Alfred raised his head while he groaned. Most of them just ignored him and concentrated on their own work. Feliciano eagerly tried to help Ludwig with his Herbology while Lovino constantly butted in with comments, not really helping at all. Ivan showed off a few charms to Yao, while the latter tried to copy them. The others just worked quietly by themselves. 

“Well, fuck that, let’s play a game instead!” Everyone raised their head.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, anything. Hide and seek, for example.”

Arthur looked at the younger boy with a raised eyebrow and a sceptical look on his face. He was about to shoot down the idea, but then Ivan stood up from where he had been sitting by the table.

“Yeas, let’s do that.”

“What?” Everyone asked at once. For Ivan to agree with Alfred was not unheard of, but certainly uncommon. 

“Yes, it will be fun.” He smiled. “But let’s add a twist to it, to make it more interesting, da?” 

“Err… what do you propose?” Arthur looked even more sceptical than he previously had, if that was possible. 

“The one who seeks, has to find everyone and bring them back here. As soon he sees them, he has to call their name, and they’re out. The seeker’s objective is to find everyone. But! Let’s give the hiders an opportunity to win by immobilizing the seeker. The hiders can attack the seeker before he calls their name. So, their objective becomes to stay hidden and bring the seeker back here.”

“That… actually sounds interesting. I’m in!” Gilbert rose from the table, his notes full of scribbles and doodling. He obviously hadn’t done anything useful for a while. 

“Oh, I wanna be the seeker!” Alfred had a childlike glint in his eyes. He sensed a challenge. 

“All right, then we’ll begin in five minutes. Alfred will stay here, while the rest of us hide.” Ivan just continued smiling. 

Nobody moved.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Go!” Alfred grinned widely as he ushered the rest of them along.

“Hey! I haven’t agreed to anyth-” Arthur began to protest, but was swiftly cut off by Francis, snickering as he rose.

“What? Afraid to lose, are we, Arthur?” 

“Oh, I’ll beat you for sure!”

The two of them butted heads as they hurriedly walked out the doorway behind Ivan and Yao, Matthew following close behind. Gilbert dragged his brother up from the bench and the rest followed suit. They might as well join the fun, they figured. 

Alfred was almost shaking with excitement as he watched the last of his friends disappear from sight.

The first group had broken into a run while discussing tactics and where to hide.

“I think our best shot is to hide in one of the empty classrooms and wait for him to pass, and then strike. Perhaps wait until he has his back turned and then petrify him.” Arthur looked over at Francis.

“Oui, that could work, but I think the boy is a lot smarter than you give him credit for, Arthur. It is possible he will see this coming and take precautions.” He rubbed his chin. “Well, we could cast a mute-spell on him, so he would not be able to say our names. I guess he could still overpower us, but Alfred is terrible with spells if he can’t shout the words. If it was, say, Sigurd, he would have no problem casting spells without speaking, but Alfred’s a different story.”

“So one of us would have to possibly sacrifice themselves to silence him then. Hmm, it could work, frog.”

At that point Ivan had swiftly pulled out his wand from his pocket and did a swirly movement against Arthur and Francis, who with screams became swept up in a wave of goo, who seemed to clutch them together, like a hand gripping them, before it hardened. Completely stuck, but relatively unharmed, both of them began shouting angrily.

“What the hell is the meaning of this, Ivan?!”

“Quoi?! Ivan! What are you doing?!”

Ivan, Yao, and Matthew stopped to look at the trapped pair.

“Your strategies are all very clever, but you forget something. In this game, we are all opponents, and I don’t need you two to beat Alfred. Yao and I will do fine on our own. Matthew can come to because I think he will be very useful. You two would just end up argue and give yourselves away anyway. So, in a way, I’m doing you a favour.” He smiled. “I’m saving you the trouble of getting caught.” With a small wave, the three of them continued running down the hallway. Matthew had no choice but to follow, but he apologized while he passed them. 

“That bastard!”

“Oh, he will pay for this.”

“Francis, you’re a little too close for comfort.”

“Well, does it look like I have a choice?!”

“Fuck, we have to get out of this. We don’t have much time, Alfred will be here any moment now.”

Meanwhile, Alfred had grown restless from waiting alone in the Great Hall, decided that enough was enough and armed with his wand, he began his search for the other students. He paused briefly at the huge doors, contemplating which way to go, before he took left. This was going to be so awesome, almost like a real battle, he thought for himself. But he had to stay alert all the time if he should win this thing. 

After taking a few turns here and there, he ended up in a long hallway, and as he stood there in the doorway, he could almost sense the presence of someone else there along with him. With his wand ready and body tense, he took a step forward. There wasn’t a sound. Then, he caught something in the corner of his eye. Quickly, he swirled around just in time to block a petrify curse. Alfred regained his balance almost instantly and got a better view of his attacker.

“Antonio, you’re out!” He grinned triumphantly.

The Spaniard groaned and slumped his shoulders.

“Argh, en serio? I thought I had you for sure there.”

“Hahah, you have to do better than that, buddy.”

“I’ll just go back to my homework then, eh.” Antonio then winked at him as he walked out of the corridor. “Good luck, amigo.” 

“What?” Alfred just stared back at the Hufflepuff. Then he noticed swift movement from behind himself and he felt the blood freeze in his veins. It had been a trap all along. The only think he could think of at the moment, was to duck, and so he did. Two beams of blue crossed over his head and smacked into walls on each side of the corridor. A quick look over his shoulder let him see his opponents before they could fire again.

“Ludwig and Gilbert! Got you!”

“For fucks sake!”

“Hahahaha!” Alfred stood up again. “That probably means Feliciano and Lovino are close by, huh?”

“Oh yeah? You’ll never find them.” Gilbert glared at his superior while he crossed his arms. He hadn’t even finished the sentence before a squeak was heard from the end of the corridor.

“Here we are! We give up! Please don’t come any closer.”

“Ah, Feliciano and Lovino, got you.”

Gilbert groaned loudly and smacked himself in the face. Ludwig just shook his head. It had been pointless to begin with. At least they could all walk back to the Great Hall together. Maybe he and Feliciano could eventually finish his Herbology assignment.

They all began strolling back, leaving a gloating American behind. 

That only left Kiku, Ivan, Yao, Arthur, Matthew, and Francis. Piece of cake, Alfred thought to himself as he continued out of the corridor and into larger hallway. The entire castle was a huge place – searching the whole thing could certainly take some time. He just had to hope those in hiding were coming for him, otherwise he might not be finished before tomorrow’s class. He heard someone talking down at the end of the hallway he was currently in. Continuing towards the sounds, Elizaveta and Roderich emerged around the corner, the former laughing cheerfully. 

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Oh, hey, Alfred.” Elizaveta, the captain of his Quidditch team, turned towards him. “We just encountered something in the East Wing, maybe you know something about it? It has become quite the attraction you see.” She dried away a tear from laughing too hard earlier. 

“What?”

“It’s better to see for yourself.” Roderich fought to keep back the smile tugging at his lips. “They’ve gathered an audience already, you couldn’t miss it.”

With a pout, Alfred began running towards the East Wing. If it was something even Roderich found amusing, it had to be worth seeing. And true to their word, the closer he came, the more students he saw snickering while talking to each other. Rounding a corner, he came to a halt at the back of a small crowd. Apparently, students had left their common room only wearing their pyjamas to see this. And it was certainly worth it.

Alfred howled as he walked through the other student, towards the spectacle. 

“Arthur, Francis, got you!”

“Alfred you sodding twat!”

“Get us down from here!”

Both of them were completely flushed and looked very desperate. They were elevated about a metre by a blue sort of crystal, which engulfed them entirely, capturing their feet and arms, halting around their stomach. Which also meant that their wands were trapped in the crystal, making no escape possible for the pair. And it would seem none of the onlookers had had the sympathy to help them in any way. The two of them were pressed together and he would imagine that hardly helped their position. 

“Wow, what happened here, dudes?” He still grinned like mad.

“No! Fuck you for coming up with that stupid idea of a game! If I wanted to be permanently immobilized by Ivan I would have asked him!”

“Stupid Américain! Stop laughing and get us down! He is driving me mad!”

“Oh, I’m driving you mad? It’s you who have your dick poking at me!”

“I have already told you! It’s my wand!”

“Yes, you keep saying that! And I don’t believe you! Alfred, stop laughing! It’s already too bad none of these fuckers won’t help.”

“Hahaha, sorry, dudes. Gotta’ go find me a Russian. You two go back to the Great Hall when you’re finished here.” He gave them a wave as he turned around and walked away.

“Alfred!” They both shouted together, but the Gryffindor paid them no mind as he exited the hallway, angry shouts disappearing behind him. Now he just had to find the last four. Hopefully, they were all close by. If he was lucky, they’d all come to him now. For you couldn’t win if the target was already taken out by others. He really had to trust in his reflexes at this point. He only had to say their name. If they could not win over him in a duel, they might as well just give up already. And there were few people who matched him in a duel, so he estimated the only real threat left had to be Ivan. 

Alfred continued his search through the halls, wand ready in his right hand. He was not however, prepared for getting a spell blown right into his face. He hadn’t even time to react. To his horror, the American could feel his sight gradually getting worse, it was as if he had taken off his glasses. If he was right, the spell was actually meant to blind him entirely, but he guessed his attacker had messed up slightly. The only thing he could think to do now was block and disarm. While rubbing his eyes with his left hand, he flung out spells with the other. He could hear he hit someone, but there seemed to be more than just one attacker. Fortunately, his had begun regaining his sight and could already make out the shape of his opponents. 

“Ivan and Yao! Got you! Damn, that felt weird.” He blinked a few times while the pair lowered their wands. His sight was still not entirely restored. 

“I thought that would work for sure.” Ivan scratched his head.

“Well maybe you should have cast the blinding spell, then!” Yao pouted and crossed his arms. Then he added a murmur. “I wasn’t ready.”

“Hahaha, better luck next time. Now there’s only Kiku and Matthew left.”

“Oh, yeah, Matthew.” Yao looked taken aback. “He was with us. Where did he go?”

“Actually, I’m right here…”

“Ah! Matthew! Got you too.” Alfred yelped by the sudden discovery of his brother standing by him. “Why didn’t you attack me?”

“Oh, I thought you said my name. Shit.”

“Well, only Kiku then. Oh, and Ivan you should maybe go fix what you did to Arthur and Francis.”

“Why?”

“Good point. Anyway, see ya.” 

While the others headed back to the Great Hall, Alfred proceeded. Now there was only him and Kiku left. He walked further down the corridor and was about to stick his head around the corner when something hit him in the back and he fell forward. A grunt left him as the Gryffindor hit the stone floor.

“W-wha-” He could speak more before a cloth was put in his mouth. Then he was turned around by his attacker and came face to face with Kiku.

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, Alfred, but it’s only temporarily. I was actually following you from the beginning, waiting to find the best time for an attack. Now, if you excuse me, I have to bring you back to the Hall. Sorry.” Kiku stood up and with a swish of his wand, Alfred was floating in the air. 

He felt utterly embarrassed as “the walk of shame” was done through the castle and into the Hall. Watching the smug smiles of his friends gathered at their previous table only furthered his embarrassment. It seemed someone finally had taken pity on Arthur and France, as they were there as well, although sending each other murderous stares. Most of the homework was cleared away, most of them already done. 

“Well, see who finally decided to join us. Nice work, Kiku.” Arthur switched his still murderous focus over to Alfred. “Now, let’s leave him like that for the rest of the night.”

“Oui, I second that.” Francis sent him a resentful look as well. “It might teach him a thing or two.”

“I’m sorry, you know I can’t do that.” Kiku apologized nervously. He probably wasn’t sure if they were joking or not. And with that, he lifted the charm on Alfred and the American fell to the floor. 

“Well, at least we can say that Kiku is the winner here.” Ludwig sighed. 

“Yes, and let’s not ever play a game together again.” Yao huffed as the rest of the group quietly agreed with him.


	11. A date with friends

Francis could see the irritated look Arthur got when the Ravenclaw’s paper bird collided with the side of his head. Professor Beilschmidt had not noticed anything and carried on teaching his class. Arthur on the other hand spared Francis a scowl before he unfolded the bird and read the note. He could feel the nervousness bubble around in his stomach as the Brit read through it. The students around them were currently taking notes off of the black board, and if they had noticed their exchange, they didn’t care enough to say anything. Francis shifted his eyes over to Arthur again. He had very discreetly tried to ask the Slytherin on a date, without it actually sounding like a date. Now he only hoped it would work. 

The Ravenclaw looked on in suspense as Arthur scribbled down something on the same piece of paper and then proceeded to fold it back into the bird and after giving it a peck with his wand, it grew back into life and flew back over to Francis. Eagerly the Ravenclaw unfolded the paper bird and read over the scribbly writing inside.

“What did you have in mind? And who else is coming?” Francis stared down at the paper. Shit. He was asking who else were coming. He wasn’t supposed to do that! He was just supposed to accept the offer and then the two of them would have a lovely evening together – just the two of them! But he couldn’t write that now. If it was just them then perhaps Arthur did not want to come after all. Francis could not take that chance.

Hurriedly the Ravenclaw scribbled down something on the paper and send the bird to Arthur again. As the Slytherin read the note Francis sat nervously still on his chair and, after Arthur gave a curt nod and turned back around to the front of the classroom, he let his head slip down on the desk and groaned quietly. Now he had to ask Antonio and Gilbert if they were up to an evening out later.


	12. Hot chocolate and warm blankets

Outside the sun had already set and the twilight had passed, only darkness visible from inside the castle walls. The candles scattered about in the Ravenclaw tower cast a cosy atmosphere and you only just barely see the puffy snowflakes falling outside the windows. Despite the little light outside it was not extremely late and it being a Friday, several of the students were out in Hogsmeade to party. However, a group who usually was out partying had decided to take it easy for once and staying behind. 

Berwald and Emil had invited their friends to spend the evening together in their common room. They had all brought up hot chocolate and biscuits from the great hall. It was a comfortable silence in the room while the warm light from the candles and fireplace danced upon the walls. The group of five sat nestled on the sofas under piles of blankets. Sigurd and Mathias were playing a game of chess over the covers while Emil was reading a book by himself in the single arm chair. Tino and Berwald sat close together on the last sofa and chatted quietly while they sipped their warm drinks. Mathias was in deep concentration and had an uncharacteristically frown on his face as he murmured out actions to his pieces. He groaned as his king was slayed by Sigurd’s knight. 

“You lost again, Mathias.” Sigurd collected his pieces and moved to place the board down on the table in front of them. 

“Argh, I’ll get you next time.” Mathias leant back and flung his arm over the back of the sofa. “You won’t get so lucky in the next Quidditch match though. I’m sure Berwald and Emil will beat you and Slytherin.”

“I’m sure they will.” Sigurd smirked back at his friend. They all played on their house’s teams in the sport and were very competitive. Last match Hufflepuff had won against Ravenclaw, so Sigurd rather liked his chances at victory. 

“Hey! You don’t think we can beat you?” Emil sat up in his chair.

“We just have a better team than you do right now, there’s nothing more to it than that.” 

“You do not!”

“We’ll see about that.” Sigurd smiled over to his younger brother. “How’s you essay in transfiguration coming along?” 

“It’s fine.” Emil puffed out his lowed lip. “I’m almost done with it.” 

“Hmm, you have to do your homework, Emil.” 

“Oh, shut up!” The Ravenclaw picked up his book again and stuck his nose into it to escape the conversation. Sigurd was always nagging on his to keep up his good grades, as if he needed that! He knew how to take care of himself. 

“I suppose the others will return soon.” Tino changed the subject. “The pubs are closing around now anyway so.” 

“Maybe we should call it a night as well?” Sigurd moved to stand up. Mathias was right behind him.

“Sure, I’ll walk with you! Tino, you coming too?”

“Nah, I think I’ll stay a little longer.” The Hufflepuff waved apologetically. 

“Suit yourself. Good night, guys.” Mathias waved at the trio while Sigurd ruffled Emil’s hair as they walked past. The boy slid further down in his seat with a grumpy look on his face. The pair exited the common room and began their decent down the stairs. Halfway down, Mathias spoke up.

“Hey, Sigurd. Did you know that Lars has a thing for Alfonso?”

“Really?” Sigurd raised an eyebrow. Both of them were in his house and he had not noticed this. “Since when?”

“I don’t know, a few months? He told me during summer vacation when he was high.” 

“Ah, that explains it.” 

They had reached the bottom of the staircase and walked down the hallway. Someplace in the castle they could hear faint shouts, probably from the drunk students already returning from Hogsmeade. As they came to the place where it was time for them to separate, they stopped for a second. Mathias leant down and pecked Sigurd on the lips. 

“See you tomorrow then.” The Gryffindor smiled.

“Sure.” Sigurd waved goodbye as the corners of his mouth crinkled upwards.


	13. Now we're even

“No, I’m telling you: Divination is much more useful than Study of Ancient Runes. There’s a reason they’re ancient, Gilbert.” Francis pointed his fork at the Slytherin from across the table. “They’re not used anymore.” It was supper in the Great Hall and only about half of the students were present. Everyone sat scattered around with friends from their different houses. Gilbert and Francis were currently by themselves, seated by the Hufflepuff table, while waiting for Antonio. 

“Well, it’s too late to tell me that now! And they’re not too bad, you know. Divination is basically useless: it’s just nonsense anyway! Anything would be better than that.” Gilbert huffed while he dug into his porridge. 

“Listen here you-”

Francis was abruptly interrupted by Antonio suddenly running up to them and sat down beside the Frenchman. He clasped a hand on the Ravenclaw’s shoulder and stared intensely at him with green eyes and a worried look on his face. Francis stared back a bit unsure.

“Is something the matter, Antonio?”

“Haven’t you heard it yet?”

“… heard what?” Francis raised an eyebrow at the Spaniard, who took a breath before he plunged out into it.

“Arthur’s in the sick bay and I think it’s quite serious.”

“What? Why? What happened?!” Francis franticly shot up from his seat with hands still resting on the table. 

“I only heard he got into a fight with three others and when it stopped all four of them almost couldn’t stand on their own feet. I think Alfred, Kiku and Matthew helped them all to the sick bay.” Antonio scratched the back of his head. “Maybe you should go visit him?” Before he finished the sentence, Francis was already on his way down to the entrance doors. Back sat the Slytherin and Hufflepuff. “Should we go with him?”

“Nah, we can go have a look later. I don’t think this is something we should interfere with. At least not for now.”

“Vale.” Antonio sunk his head down on his hands on the table and sighed. After a few seconds of silence, Gilbert continued eating his supper. 

Francis made his way in hurried steps out from the Great Hall. He felt his heart beating heavy in his chest and tried not to panic. Surely it was not something Arthur could not recover from. Rushing past other students, he went down the hall to the left and ascended the stairs at the end. After walking down another hallway and taking a few turns here and there, he arrived at the sick bay. The first thing he saw outside the closed door was Alfred, Matthew and Kiku, sitting on a bench and talking in hushed voices to each other. Francis nodded to them as he opened the door and went inside. They nodded back with serious faces and the Ravenclaw felt a chill run down his back. Stepping inside, he stood by the door a few seconds before he located his friend almost down at the left end of the bay. 

Francis franticly studied the Slytherin, who had yet to notice him entering, as he walked down the aisle. Arthur sat leant back on the bed with his eyes closed. Any outer damage Francis could locate just by looking was what was probably a broken nose, with dried blood all over his chin and lips, a small cut above his heavily bruised right eye, and his right arm looked a bit… different. Reaching the bed, Francis could see Arthur was awake and had noticed his presence, even though he hadn’t peeked, and he pulled up a chair standing close by and sat down beside the bed.

“How are you feeling, cher?” Francis asked after a few seconds of tense silence. Arthur didn’t even look up while he mumbled an answer. 

“How do you think I feel?” He obviously tried to frown but had to surrender to the pain around his eye. 

“Are you seriously hurt somewhere? Where is professor Rahimi? Shouldn’t he be here to fix you up?” Francis began rambling and his voice increasing in volume.

“Relax, he’s patching up the others.” Arthur groaned.

“Are you hurt?” Francis repeated the question carefully, but insistent. He could feel the anger rising inside him though. Why wouldn’t Arthur look at him, and why did he keep on avoiding his questions? “Arthur, look at me.” He moved his hand to touch the Slytherin on the closest arm but had to retreat it when Arthur winced at the contact. Still; the Brit opened his eyes and lazily turned to look at the Ravenclaw. He then sighed.

“Why are you here, Francis?”

“Why I am here?! Why do you think, you stupid idiot? I want to know what you are doing here! Why did you have to fight those boys so badly that you ended up in here?” Francis made wide gestures with his arms while he ranted, his hair becoming even more tousled than what it had been after the running. Arthur just lay still on the bed before he frowned.

“That’s none of your business, Francis. I’m fine, so just leave already.”

At this the Frenchman flared with his nostrils and huffed loudly before he rose from the chair, turned on his heel and walked away from the bed. Angry thoughts flew around his head; how could he say that? He was only worried, and at least he thought they were friends, so he didn’t understand why Arthur had to be such an arse. Francis flung up the door so hard that it smacked into the stone wall outside. Slamming it shut behind him, the Ravenclaw turned to the only other people in the hallway and marched up to them.

“Why is he in there?” He almost shouted at the trio. He regretted it and calmed down once he saw Matthew and Kiku carefully retreating at his outburst. Alfred just sized him up with a curious look before he answered.

“He wouldn’t tell you?”

“Obviously not.” Francis grumbled. 

“Well that’s weird. I thought he would - all things considered.”

“Will you just answer already? Do you or do you not know?”

“Alfred…” Matthew placed an arm on his brother’s shoulder. “Maybe we shouldn’t say anything if Arthur doesn’t want him to know? It is really none of our business you know.” 

“I think he deserves to know so I don’t give a fuck about what Arthur wants.” The Gryffindor had his sky-blue eyes fastened steady on the Frenchman as he spoke. “These boys were talking shit about a certain person. Arthur heard it and challenged them to a fight. You should have seen it; it was epic! They have it so much worse than him. I almost feel sorry for them.”

“Really? Who were they talking about?”

The trio exchanged glances before Alfred spoke again. 

“You. We all heard it. And seriously: if Arthur hadn’t beaten me to it, I would have kicked their asses myself.”

Francis tried to swallow back a lump which had suddenly appeared in his throat.

“W-what did they say?”

“I don’t think you need to-” Matthew was harshly interrupted by his loudmouthed Gryffindor brother. 

“Some bullshit about you being a total slut and whoring yourself out for everything from better grades to small favours of sort. That you only cared for one thing and just used people like you wanted to. And yeah, that you were a creep and a weirdo. Probably didn’t help their cause that they called Arthur your little bitch, although that was after he attacked them.” 

Francis felt all of them studying him as he took the information in over himself. He felt his hand scrambling after the wall to steady his body so he wouldn’t fall over. Arthur had defended him. And still he wouldn’t tell him. Was he embarrassed perhaps? Francis could sense a warm feeling creeping up into his chest area. Taking deep breaths, his focus drifted back to his onlookers. He swallowed a few times before he spoke. 

“But he-he’s okay, oui?” He looked between the North-American brothers. “He’s not seriously injured, right?” 

Alfred scratched the back of his head.

“Nah, he’ll be fine. I think the worst is the dislocated arm, but otherwise he’ll do fine.” 

Francis could only nod shakenly before he turned around and went back inside the sick bay. This time he could spot some curtains on the right side of the aisle, which probably hid the three students Arthur duelled. Most likely the teacher was with them. Shifting his gaze over to the left side and he saw Arthur still lying on the bed – although this time his head was turned towards the Ravenclaw. Carefully, Francis walked down the aisle and toward his friend. Arthur’s curious, green eyes followed him as he closed in. Which made the butterflies in his stomach flutter even more than it had before. When he came to the bed, Francis sat down on the same chair he had last time. Clearing his throat, the Ravenclaw glanced up to the Slytherin. 

“How are you feeling?” At loss for anything else to say, Francis settled with his earlier question. This time Arthur answered with a softer voice while he avoided the other’s eyes. 

“Everything hurts.” 

Francis leaned forward, placed a hand on the Brit’s forehead and brushed away a few strands of hair. The Ravenclaw then fished out his wand from his robes and knocked it softly against the broken nose. At the sound of a crack, Arthur groaned and the nose visibly straightened out while the dried blood disappeared. 

“You know, err, I’m… glad you… you’re all right.” Francis sat up and put away the wand while he talked. “I guess you probably had your reasons for it and… I hope you ruined those other boys.” Francis flashed a bright smile at the other. Arthur just looked at him a few seconds before he cracked a smile as well. 

“You bet. You should have seen those fuckers; I thought they’d wet themselves when I hit them with that third hex. And they deserved nothing less.”

“They probably just discovered your eyebrows in the middle of fighting – you shouldn’t flatter yourself, cher.” Francis winked at the bedridden boy. 

“You bloody fucker! You should be happy my wand-arm is not operational, you dirty bastard. Or I would hex you!”

“As you’d be able to.” Francis stuck out his tongue. With a small laugh he shook his head, bent down and left a kiss on Arthur’s right hand. The way the other froze and began flushing red was absolutely worth it. The Slytherin stuttered while trying to speak. It was quite adorable, Francis thought as he rose from the chair. With a small wave of his hand he strolled back down the aisle again.

“Let me know if you need me and I’ll be right back.” He glanced over his shoulder at the still silent boy on the bed. “And get better soon, cher.” He still hadn’t gotten a reply as the doors swung shut behind him.


	14. Where's my book?

“Hola, Lovino! Qué pasa?” Antonio leaned against the bookshelf, hands stuffed in his pockets. He was only wearing his shirt, dropping the tie and sweater. The Hufflepuff had just been passing the library on his way back to the common room after hanging out with Emma and Lars. Then he had spotted the Italian and decided to see how he was doing. 

“Nothing much.” Lovino didn’t even spare the Spaniard a glance as he was too busy scanning the shelf carefully with furrowed brows. He had been looking for one specific book for half an hour already and was not in the mood. There was this one book he absolutely needed for his History of Magic-essay, and it was supposed to still be in the library, but he could not find it. 

“You looking for something?” Antonio stood up straight and moved over to stand beside the shorter boy. 

“Well, yeah, obviously.”

“Want some help with that?” Antonio grinned.

Finally Lovino turned to face the Hufflepuff and stared sceptically at him. But as he didn’t want to spend the rest of the evening looking for a book all alone, he reliantly nodded. This made Antonio beam at him.

“So! What are we looking for?” Antonio leant forward to study the bookcase in front of him.

“It’s supposed to be about this thick.” Lovino held up his hands to show it was a relatively fat book. “The binding is brown leather with gold letters saying Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.”

“Oh, that one! I think I’ve seen it somewhere.” He smiled apologetic. “Can’t remember where though.”

“Argh, seriously?” Lovino groaned. “Never mind, just take the other shelf, I’m almost done searching this one.”

“Lo siento, Lovi.” Antonio still did as the other said and turned so they were standing back to back, searching through each side of the aisle. He could swear he had seen the book recently, but he just couldn’t remember where. After a few minutes, they had still found nothing and Lovino was finished with his side, so he began from the opposite side of Antonio and worked his way towards him. 

“So, what do you need the book for? Isn’t the assignment for tomorrow?”

“I’m actually finished a week ago, but I forgot to add the sources so I had to track down all the books I used, and this is the last one I need.”

“Ah, that sucks.” 

Lovino slumped down on his knees and slowly banged his head against the shelf. Antonio kneeled down beside him and carefully rested a hand on the other’s shoulder.

“Relax, Lovino. It’s gonna to be all right.” When Lovino looked up to glare at him, Antonio only flashed his brightest smile. “You’re not gonna fail if you’re only missing one source. And you still have several years before you graduate, one small essay isn’t the end of everything, amigo.”

Lovino growled.

“It’s easy for you to say. History of Magic is about the only subject I can actually get good grades in. It’s the only subject I’m actually better than Feliciano. And if I can’t even get a decent grade there, and all because I forgot to add one source, then I don’t even know.” 

Antonio stared dumbfounded at him. Then he put his right arm around him and stroked his back.

“Hey, Lovino.”

“What?” The Gryffindor had retorted to staring blankly down at the wooden floor, and only mumbled the reply.

“Come with me.”

Lovino looked up at Antonio as the Spaniard winked at him with a bright smile. He felt his heart pound a bit faster and the heat rise to his cheeks. So, he could only let himself be moved as Antonio rose to his feet, and with a steady hand, lead him out of library. He barely managed to get his bag before they were walking down the hall.

“Where are we going?”

“Just wait and see.” Antonio flashed a smile, as it seemed it was the only thing he did these days, and his brown, curly locks fell down on his forehead. He still had his arm   
over Lovino’s shoulders.

Eventually Lovino figured they were walking down towards the Hufflepuff common room, and he scowled. If Antonio was trying to get him to talk it all over with Feliciano, he would be furious. But when Antonio had said the password and they were inside, Feliciano was nowhere to be found. The only ones currently sitting in the common room was Matthew and Ravis, both of them absorbed by their own book. Antonio led him over to the deep yellow couch, obviously well used, and sat him down there before he vanished down a corridor, presumably leading to the dormitory. He felt a bit uneasy when he was left alone. It was not his house after all. But the unease all but disappeared as soon as the Spaniard returned. 

Over his left arm, Antonio had draped a blanket and was holding to mugs of a hot beverage in his right. In his left, he was carrying a paper bag of something. He sat down beside the Gryffindor and placed the mugs and paper bag down on the small tabled in front of them, which was already overcrowded by parchment, scrolls and books. Then he used the blanket to cover both their laps. Fetching the mugs on the table again, he leant back comfortably and gave on of them to Lovino. Mumbling a thanks, he accepted and took a sip of what he made out to be hot chocolate. Lovino let out a deep breath as he closed his eyes and sunk back into the couch as well. 

“You know, it doesn’t hurt to relax once in a while.” Antonio smiled softly. “I know you’ve been working hard lately, Lovi. And you’re amazing for that.” Lovino frowned as he felt himself redden. “But sometimes you just need to calm down.” Antonio petted his shoulder.

“What I do is none of your business, bastard.”

“Lovino, of course it is! I care about you. You’re a… very good… friend of mine.” 

Lovino huffed and leant forward to place the mug back down on the table. Yeah, he already knew they were nothing more than friends, he didn’t have to point it out. The silence stretched as Lovino did nothing to answer. Antonio then retrieved the paper bag and dug around in it before he produced a brightly red tomato, and held it up towards Lovino, as if it was some kind of peace offering. 

Lovino grumbled before he snatched it out of the nice, tan hand. As Antonio moved to put it back, he got held back by the blanket, which had twisted itself, and managed to disturb the table so a few pages of parchment fell to the floor. Lovino stared wide-eyed at the book now visible on the table.

“It’s my book!”

“Oh, I knew I had seen it somewhere.” Antonio scratched his chin. 

“You bastard! It was you all along.” Lovino turned furious to the Hufflepuff.

“Lo siento, Lovi. I didn’t know I had it.” He held up his arms to try to calm the other down. Lovino just crossed his arms and pursed his lips. “At least you still have time to finish the essay now.” The Spaniard tried to lighten the mood. He waited a few seconds while nothing happened.

“Do you want another tomato?”

“All right then.”


	15. Of course we're the best

It was crowded around them as the pair walked together towards the castle. Everyone was on their way back from the Quidditch match. One of them sagged his shoulders slightly and nearly sulking, the other with his head held high. 

“Just quit gloating already, you didn’t even play.” Francis glared over at his Slytherin friend. Arthur just kept grinning, his hands resting on his lower back. 

“You still lost for my house.” He adjusted his coat slightly as he talked. “Slytherin is just overall better than Ravenclaw and there’s nothing you can do about it.” 

Francis put up an angry pout and tightened his grip around the broom. 

“Just because you win one match does not mean that you are better than us, rosbif!” His golden hair, which was now slightly more curled because of the sweat, flowed around his head as he snapped at Arthur. “And you should stop gloating, when you are not even on the team. At least I am on the team.”

“Not my fault Ravenclaw lack good chasers.” Arthur did not take the bait as he was too busy basking in the other’s misery. 

They pushed past some teachers who were standing by the main entrance of the school. Professor Beilschmidt had a content smile on his face while listening to headmaster Romulus’ rambling. He was probably basking in the lovely feeling of sweet victory – as was any Slytherin right now. Without either Francis nor Arthur taking particularly notice of it, the Brit accompanied the other towards the changing rooms. The Ravenclaw frowned.

“Are you saying I am not a capable chaser, eyebrows?” The French had already begun taking the straps off on his forearms and was currently struggling with the one close to the elbow on his right. So, he paused in the empty hallway – all the other players having already gone to the dressing rooms. Arthur halted with him and just stared at the other fumbling more intense with the strap, in the end grabbing a hold of his arm, straightening it out, and began loosening the leather. Francis relaxed his shoulder and let out a deep sigh while he closed his eyes for a few seconds.

“I’m not saying you’re the best chaser.” Arthur murmured as he was too busy with the protection gear to notice Francis opening an eye to look at him. “There’s certainly room for improvement. But it’s not like it’s your fault your team lost today.”

“What is this? I dare say that was almost a compliment coming from you, cher.” Francis smirked at him as Arthur glared up from the straps. With a rough pull, he yanked the gear off of the forearm and began working on the other. Francis willingly held it out for him. 

“Don’t read too much into it, frog.” They were both silent for a few seconds as Francis studied Arthur with a warm look as he removed the last protection around the arm. He worked slower this time, and Francis took his time taking in the other. His beautiful, green eyes were focused on his work and there was a slight frown visible around his eyebrows. Francis was very close to just kiss him but restrained himself regardless. 

“Wouldn’t even think about it, cher.” Francis allowed himself a smile before he let out a sigh and let his face relax again. He rubbed his arm as Arthur removed the last gear and continued walking down the hallway with the other. 

Francis took no notice of Arthur, who could see that the Ravenclaw almost looked sorrowful as he stared emptily down at the floor. Or at least in deep thought. The Slytherin still held onto the protection gear and carried them under his left arm. They said nothing more to each other until they reached the door leading into the dressing room. From inside they could hear the muffled sound of the other Ravenclaw players talking. Both of them paused and Arthur gave back the gear Francis just now noticed he had carried. He looked back up at the Slytherin and could see a faint blush spreading over his cheeks. The Ravenclaw smirked.

“Quoi?” He asked in a soft, deep, caring voice, almost tender, and looked at the other with hooded eyes.

“You’re not that bad, you know.” Arthur cleared his throat and looked over at some paintings to his left, the blush more apparent now. Francis grinned at that. He looked at the Slytherin for a few seconds before he spoke. 

“You should come and see me- us practice sometime.” He winked. “You’ll see we can do better than what we did out there tonight.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Arthur huffed and then smirked. “I’ll see you later then?”

“Rosbif, you won’t get rid of me.” Francis laughed at that and Arthur just shook his head before he turned around and continued down the hallway. Francis stood still, watching him go with a smile on his face, before he turned as well and headed inside the dressing room.


	16. Quidditch practice

Arthur had taken Francis up on his offer to come watch Ravenclaw’s quidditch practice this Thursday. The weather was cloudy but fortunately it hadn’t begun raining yet. In case he should get bored, Arthur had brought his Astrology homework to maybe get something done. He had taken a spot up on the Slytherin tribune and watched as the team entered the field. Francis was easy to spot with his golden hair tied into a short ponytail. Ludwig walked first leading on and stopped in front of the others. He probably walked through the training with them, as he was the captain for the team. Francis was standing between Felix and Maurice. Arthur couldn’t do anything but stare at the back of his head, too far away to hear what they were saying. 

Then the whole team took off and began flying around in the air. There was only one person Arthur followed through the sky. Francis was certainly something. He had always been there for him, through thick and thin. And he cared so immensely for everyone it was hard not to like him. Not to mention his looks. Arthur sighed. He was truly beautiful and could surely have anyone he wanted. But the most fun, was their conversations. They could talk for hours about anything and nothing. And Francis was a most excellent conversation partner, although he could be irritating at times. Arthur felt a flutter in his stomach and couldn’t help the smile that split his face in two. Then he froze. Of course. He was in love with Francis. How could he not have seen this before? He got an unsettling feeling in his stomach and it almost felt like he had to throw up. This was so wrong. How could he face Francis after this? What would he do if he found out? Or maybe Francis had cast a spell on him or something? Yes, that could be it: he was probably under a hex of some sort. He had to look closer into that later. 

At that point, Francis made his entrée by flying up to him while the other players landed down on the ground. Francis was grinning from ear to ear and lay over his broom.

“Arthur! So, you came.” He winked at him, and Arthur could feel the blush creeping up his neck. “I knew you couldn’t stay away from me, cher.”

“Oh sod off, frog.” Arthur looked away to try to keep the butterflies now flying around in his stomach under control. Francis just laughed.

“So what do you think?”

“What?”

“What do you think of the training? Isn’t that why you are here? To see for yourself that we are going to beat Hufflepuff next match?”

“Oh, yes, well, yes there’s certainly potential here. If only you can manage to stay on top of your broom during the game.” He smirked as Francis smile faltered.

“You saw that?”

“Of course, I couldn’t-” keep my eyes off you “-avoid seeing that. You should try to keep closer to your broom.” 

Francis huffed at that.

“As if Ludwig hasn’t been saying that to me for forever.” 

As he talked Arthur raised his finger up to lightly poke Francis’ broom. Which resulted in the Ravenclaw yelping while he struggled to hold on.

“And how exactly did you plan to beat the Hufflepuffs?” 

“Well, you’re not exactly helping!”

“I’m not trying to help.”

“Then why are you here?”

“To see… you.” Arthur looked away and scratched the back of his head while the blush overtook his face. “I guess.”

Francis was so taken aback he almost fell of his broom a second time. He just stopped up and stared at the Slytherin. But he quickly regained face and smiled as he leaned forward.

“That warms my heart to hear, cher. Who’d have thought you actually cared? I guess you finally have warmed up to me. It only took me five years.” Francis cast his head backwards in laughter. 

“Oh, shut up! Don’t make me push you off!”


	17. Bewitched

“I need your help.” Arthur sat across from the Asian boy in the empty classroom. His arms were crossed and his face stern, something that had made Kiku quite anxious. Something had to be terribly wrong. The Ravenclaw nodded in acceptation and waited for the Brit to continue. 

“You know I can’t brew potions for the life of me, and there’s this thing I need to test for reasons you don’t need to know, and you seem to be decent in the art, so I have now come to you.” Out of his bag, Arthur fetched an old book – which seemed to belong to the library – and laid it out on the desk in between them before he found the right page. Kiku studied the recipe when Arthur turned the book around for him to see. The potion made him raise his eyebrows. 

“You want to know if someone has cast a spell on you or if you are under any magical influence?” Arthur nodded. “And you are sure this potion is the best way to do it? Besides; I don’t know if I’m the right person to do this, Francis is a lot better than me at this.”

“I don’t want Francis involved. He doesn’t need to know about this.” Arthur practically growled at the mention of the other Ravenclaw. “And: yes, I’m certain this is what I want to do. I already brought the ingredients, you only need to mix it all together.”

 

“Oh, you wanted to do this now?”  
“Preferably.”

Kiku just nodded once more and he then received what he needed to perform the task from the Slytherin. In the end, they used about five hours on brewing the potion. He was lucky Arthur had considered that factor and asked for help on a Saturday, so they had no classes to worry about. Although Ludwig and Feliciano came by around twelve and asked if he wanted to come with them down to Hogsmeade on a walk, otherwise the time passed uneventful and around one o’clock the potion was finished. 

“So now you only have to drink it, and if you are influenced by magic your eyes will begin glowing red.” Kiku looked up from where he was reading in the book at his friend. Arthur seemed a tad nervous. “Are you ready?” The Slytherin nodded and took a large sip of the ladle they had used. They both waited in suspense. Arthur raised an eyebrow at the other.

“Do you see anything?”

Kiku stared intently for a few seconds before giving up.

“No, there doesn’t appear to be spell or the like of it on you, I’m sorry.” 

Arthur sighed resigned.

“Fuck,” he muttered. “No, I’m sorry, Kiku. To keep you here all day without anything to show for it.”

“No, no, that’s quite all right. If you had any suspicion of a spell cast on you, I’m sure there is a good explanation, and I’d do anything to help a friend.” He bowed his head slightly before looking up at a smiling Brit. 

“I knew I could trust you. Thank you for doing this for me anyway. At least it’s confirmed now.” The Slytherin grimaced. “And could you not mention this for Francis?” Kiku was about to answer when there came a voice from across the room, in the entrance.

“Don’t mention what to me?” Their heads turned over to the doorway to see Francis standing there with crossed arms and a wide stand. His hair was slightly tousled and Kiku thought he appeared almost frightening behind the mask of playfulness. A chill went down his back as he locked eyes with the Frenchman. Francis’ eyes shifted over to Arthur again, who seemed not to notice the air around the Ravenclaw, and he continued to speak. “Arthur, I’ve been looking all over for you! I heard from Antonio, who heard from Feliciano, that you have been coped up in this room with Kiku all day.” Francis walked into the room towards them, and Arthur acted quickly, throwing the book down in his bag again, and using a vanishing spell on the potion. “What? Did he help you with some potions?” Francis sent a quick glare towards Kiku, who shrunk further down in his seat. Arthur was as oblivious as before to the notion.

“Yes, he did as a matter of fact, but I fail to see how that’s any of your concern, frog.” Arthur bit back at Francis, who seemed a bit taken aback at that and softened out his voice.

“You know I’m better than him at potions, cher, you could’ve only asked me you know?” Francis came to stand by the desk they had used as a workspace and smiled down at the Slytherin. Arthur only snorted in reply.

“As if! You’d only make fun of me, you idiot. And I can trust Kiku always to be efficient, as opposed to certain others.” 

“Hey! I can be efficient!”

“Hah! I’ll believe it when I see it, frog.” Arthur raised an eyebrow at that. Kiku felt entirely unwelcomed where he sat and began wishing he was anywhere else. But at least Francis was not sending him any scary looks anymore. 

“Just forget it then.” Francis huffed and then turned to leave. “Are you coming?”

Arthur looked questionably at him.

“Where?” 

“Down to the Great Hall. I think your Slytherin friend has begun another chess match with Berwald, do you want to watch?” Kiku noticed something urgent in Francis’ voice, easy to overlook, but still there. He definitely wanted Arthur to come with him. 

“Sure. Sigurd will probably win anyway, but all right. Thanks for helping me, Kiku, I’ll see you later.” Arthur smiled at him, and Kiku tried to smile back without upsetting Francis. It became rather forced, but he didn’t think Arthur noticed. 

“It was no problem, Arthur. Goodbye.” He waved at the Slytherin as he and the Frenchman disappeared out the doorway. A sigh of relief escaped him once the pair was gone. However, he sat back with the feeling that he had missed something very important.


	18. Sweet victory

Francis could not stop grinning. The volume around him was absolutely deafening, but at the moment he didn’t care. Students shouting of joy and embracing each other. His team was practically ambushed when they walked off the field. Nearly everyone from his house was there to congratulate them with wild cheers and hugs. Even a few Slytherins and Gryffindors where there shouting as well. Francis walked in the middle of his team, beside their two beaters; Maurice and Felix, all three of them ecstatic. Felix kept hanging on his right side and shouting, Maurice on his left was equally happy, just better to compose himself. Francis just laughed and brought them both closer with his arms. Not even the rain dripping down from above and drenching them could ruin this moment. 

In front of him he could see Ludwig receiving a big hug from Gilbert, who had come down from the Slytherin seats. A hope lit inside him, and he felt himself look around for another Slytherin he knew had been watching the game. In the end, he spotted him just outside the heap of Ravenclaw students, standing with an umbrella over his head, preventing himself from getting wet. Francis grinned even more when he saw the Slytherin chuckling, regardless of that he was currently talking to Kiku – probably congratulation him with the victory. All right; maybe that irked him a little bit. Nonetheless, Francis let go of his teammates and made his way in-between everyone over to the two. During the last few metres he suddenly became aware of his state: completely drenched to the bone, clothes heavy on his body and his wonderful hair was now clinging to his head, sticking out everywhere. He probably reeked of sweat as well. Even so, he took the last step up close and embraced his friend in a bone crushing hug while he lifted him off the ground. Arthur had only noticed him in the last second – too busy talking to Kiku – and was not prepared. He wailed a little with his arms before he noticed fully who it was and relaxed, putting his hands on the French’s shoulders. 

“Frog, I was busy!” Arthur didn’t sound threatening at all, rather amused in fact. Francis put him down and let go, all while grinning like mad. And now really looking at Arthur he was enraptured and felt himself pushing closer to give him a kiss, but he got a hold of himself at the last second. The Brit looked a bit taken back and Francis cursed himself, but then Arthur smiled softly. Although shocked at first, Francis soon eased into a grin.

“See, I told you we were better.”

“Barely.” The Slytherin smirked. They were now three people beneath one umbrella and it was rather crowed. Francis could see Arthur looking at him weirdly and raised a brow at that.

“Something the matter?”

“No, just-” Arthur bit his teeth together and looked away. “You should get inside before you catch a cold, idiot. Standing out in the cold rain like that! It’s your fault if I get sick now!” The scowl on his face matched perfect with the soft blush on his cheeks, in Francis’ opinion. 

“I’ll gladly take responsibility for that, cher.” Francis winked and Kiku chuckled softly by their side. Arthur was not that impressed. 

“Idiot.”

“You’re always such a pleasure, Arthur cher.”

“Just go inside, frog! Then I won’t have to see you anymore!”

“Certainly.” Francis blew a kiss at him as he turned around to walk away. “We’re having a victory party in our common room later, you should come.”

“I’ll consider it.”

Francis sighed with a smile at his lips while he walked away in the rain. Arthur would definitely be there tonight.


	19. Of course not!

Arthur was sitting by himself in the Slytherin common room. He was comfortably seated in a soft armchair with a heavy book on his lap. However, it was not the content of the book that was on his mind. The words on the page turn into gibberish while his thoughts wandered towards a certain Ravenclaw student.   
A sigh escaped him as he pictured a flow of golden locks, framing his face and those heavenly blue eyes. He and Francis had been friends for a long time now, so how was it that it was only recently he had noticed that tingly sensation in his stomach every time he so much as thought of the other? How had he not realized how he felt before? Arthur frowned down at the book. This was so embarrassing. All the recent events had made everything clear to him. Like how he had gotten into a fight with someone badmouthing Francis, seeing him practicing Quidditch so very elegantly, or just how he forgot to breathe every time the French smiled to him. Francis, who was so kind-hearted and beautiful and caring and just wonderful in every way. Arthur was in love with Francis, and he hadn’t even noticed it. But then came the big question: what did Francis think of him? Surely such a fantastic person could not reciprocate his feelings. He buried his head down in the book and groaned. Great.

Suddenly the main door opened and Sigurd and Vlad walked in through the entrance, chatting together. 

“Hey, Arthur, what’s up?” Vlad grinned brightly, his fangs standing out. Arthur sighed and leant back into the chair. 

“Nothing much.”

Both of the approaching Slytherins stopped up and exchanged a curious look. This was certainly unusual for the Brit. 

“What’s wrong? Thinking about that Potion essay due next Tuesday?” Sigurd raised an eyebrow. It could be something like that, considering Arthur’s grades in Professor Rahimi’s class. 

“No, it’s not that. It’s just – never mind.” Arthur sighed again. His friends didn’t even hesitate to walk over to him and while Sigurd took another chair, Vlad simply leant against its back. 

“Well, clearly something is wrong.” Sigurd levelled him with a flat stare. “And if it’s not school, I suspect there might be some drama or quarrel of sorts?” His monotone voice hid a keen curiosity and a glint appeared in his dark eyes. “Or is it… love?”

Arthur couldn’t help it, but a blush crept up his cheeks while he stared bashful at the green carpet under their feet. He could swear Sigurd could read minds sometimes. Still, he tried to refuse his inquiries. 

“Of course not! Don’t be silly.”

“Sure.” Vlad grinned evilly. “And this person – whom you don’t have a crush on – don’t happen to be a certain French Ravenclaw, right?” 

“I would never-!”

“Of course not, Arthur.” Sigurd blinked at him. “I suspect that would be quite a blow to him then, but oh well.” The Norwegian stood up from the chair and began walking towards the dorms, a snickering Vlad behind him. 

“Hey! Wait! What did you mean by that?” Arthur rose halfway from his chair while the book he had in his lap fell down onto the carpet at his feet. He cursed while picked it up.

“You might be clever, Arthur, but the most obvious thing you can’t see.” And the pair of them disappeared into the boy’s dorm.


	20. Fun in the snow

The snow had finally stopped falling as the group began their way back to school after a nice December morning, wandering around Hogsmeade. It had been snowing for three whole days and now the ground was covered in a white, cold blanket, the road barely walkable. The sun had begun peeking out from its hiding place, and it was almost too warm to wear their winter coats. 

The chatter flowed freely among the students and smiles were on all their faces. Alfred, Matthew, Kiku and Arthur walked in the front of the group while Francis, Gilbert, Ludwig and Feliciano made the second line, and Ivan, Yao, Antonio and Lovino were taking it slow at the back. The loudest conversation, of course, went on in the front.

“And now we have that stupid Potion essay till Tuesday, and a match on Monday! That’s like in two days! How the fuck does teachers expect us to do shit?” Alfred gestured franticly with hands. The Gryffindor had never been known for his devotion to his studies, and the essay had been given well over a week ago. While his friends chuckled, or rolled their eyes, he turned around with a grin. “Just wait! We’ll fuck you guys over, Ravenclaws. There isn’t no essay that can stop me!”

Francis and Ludwig sighed. 

“Well, fortunately for me, cher, I have perfect grades in Potions, and Ludwig already did his, so at least we won’t be distracted by that.” And then Francis winked at him. “And just who was it that lost against Slytherin two weeks ago? I seem to have forgotten.” Alfred blushed slightly and gave him an angry pout. “Ludwig, maybe you could remind me?”

“I believe that would be Gryffindor.” The German answered with a shy smile while Feliciano giggled by his side. 

“Well, yeah, we only lost that one because the other team was cheating!”

“What was that?!” Gilbert tilted his head and stared down the American.

“Everyone knows that the Slytherins are cheaters!” The Gryffindor stuck out his tongue and closed his eyes. That was a mistake as he got hit right in the face by a ball of snow and tumbled backwards. He wiped himself clean while he shouted. “See?! That was so cheating!” In return, he made a new snow ball and threw it at the Slytherin, who dodged it by a millisecond. 

“Hah! Now that’s why you didn’t win the game, asshole!” His laughter was cut short by another cold ball. To his face this time. 

The snowball Gilbert had dodged ended up hitting Ivan instead, who was walking right behind him. He was just standing there, smiling.

“You American think this snow will hurt me. You are so stupid, this is only snow, it will never-” He was silenced with another hit as well, with a bigger ball this time. The Hufflepuff then turned around to gather some snow himself. 

Then Arthur got hit by a ball meant for Alfred, which Gilbert had thrown. Before he could apologize, the German was bombarded by both of his victims. Several of these balls were hitting the innocent bystanders. Feliciano yelped and hid behind Ludwig, who were obviously irritated by their antics. Antonio joined Gilbert’s defence while Francis did his best to take cover behind them. Lovino had joined his brother in hiding. By Ivan’s side, Yao sighed loudly.

“You know, Ivan is right, this is so stupid. You are all immature children who needs to grow up.”

“Wow, you hear that guys? Yao is afraid he’ll lose!”

“I am not! Shut up, Alfred!”

“Then make me! Wow, dude, Ivan, get that monster of a ball away from me!” The Gryffindor then proceeded to scream as he ran away with the Russian chasing him, carrying a huge ball of snow over his head.

Now all alone against Gilbert, Antonio and Francis, Arthur shouted at Yao to help him. No fucking way, he declared and continued walking past the battlefield, towards the castle. Ivan joined up with him, happily leaving behind two very American feet sticking up from a pile of snow.

Matthew and Kiku began walking away as well, out of the sheer awkwardness of just standing there while Arthur was the only one being targeted. The Slytherin had now taken out his wand and was making snowballs fly in a circle around him, blocking the shots from Antonio and Gilbert. One of them bounced off the “shield” and hit Matthew in the back of his head.

“Ah, so sorry, Mattie!” Gilbert stopped up, leaving himself open for a second too long, Arthur had already seen his chance and hit Gilbert with a great force of snowballs so he went flying into the ditch. 

“Hah! Taste the cold, sweet feeling of revenge, you scum!” Arthur laughed. “Thanks, Matthew.”

The Hufflepuff tried to say that he didn’t even do anything, but it all fell on deaf ears. With a sigh, he and Kiku continued towards the castle, leaving the others behind. 

“Antonio! Kick that idiot’s ass!” Lovino had begun shouting from behind Ludwig, cheering on the Hufflepuff. The tall German had drawn his wand to make an invisible shield in front of them, against the snowballs flying everywhere. The Italians had still not realized this. 

“Come on and help, Francis, I can’t do this alone you know!” Antonio had also drawn his wand, made with pear tree wood, and began deflecting the snowballs coming for him. 

“Ah, oui, oui, just a second!” Francis fumbled with his own wand before getting it right and turned around to face his adversary. “Hah! I’ll defeat you now, rosbif.”

“What? A coward like you? Don’t make me laugh.” The Brit began concentrating most of his fire on the Ravenclaw and missed Antonio’s twitch of the wand. Before he could catch what had happened, he was swirled around, captured by the snow, and lost the grip on his wand. “Wha-”

Francis went triumphally up to the snowman that was now Arthur and picked up the wand belonging to the Brit. Smirking challenging, he brought it up to tap against his own chin, as to gloat a bit. 

“Now what was that about who’ll be defeating who?”

“You didn’t do shit, frog!” 

“It was all part of the plan, cher. But I guess such genius is too hard for you to comprehend.”

“You little fucker!” The Slytherin’s eyes were almost glowing red from the anger burning deep inside him. 

“Err, Francis, you know it’s just snow holding him?” Antonio had been blushing and laughing while taking a seldom praise from his Italian friend but stopped to warn the Frenchman. All a bit too late unfortunately. Arthur bust out from the snow and a second later Francis had ended up with his head buried in the ditch.


	21. It's just the flu

His head pounded as he pulled the duvet closer. It was quiet in the boys’ dormitory. All the others were attending classes, himself the only one sick. He stuck out a hand to grab the one of the tissues currently placed on his nightstand. Arthur had been so kind as to provide them for him before he had left for the day. Sigurd blew his nose before slumping his head back down on the pillow. His throat burned and felt as if it had swelled up while the fever was making his body shake. Tired after a bad night’s sleep, Sigurd closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep.

A light touch to his shoulder shook him out of his sleep. Lifting only one eyelid, he tried to get a look at the one who woke him. The dorm was still quiet, but by his bed stood two students. It was Tino and Berwald. Tino looked sympathetically down at him while the Ravenclaw stood behind him. 

“What are you doing here?” He mumbled.

“Hello, Sigurd. I’m sorry to disturb you, we just wanted to see how you were.” Tino patted the duvet.

“I’m fine.”

“No you’re not.” Berwald stared down at him.

“Who even let you in?” Sigurd tried to bury his face further down in the pillow. 

“We just followed Vlad and he let us in.” Tino sat down on his bedside. “We brought you a cup of warm water with honey and lemon, if you want it.” 

Berwald put down the mug he had been holding on the small bedside table. 

“…thanks.”

“And I also brought the Transfiguration notes from our class together today. I can take notes for you in our History of Magic class after lunch if you’d like.”

“That’d be nice, thanks.” 

Tino smiled at him.

“Anyway, we won’t disturb you any more, we have classes in five minutes so we need to go. But get well soon.” Tino rose from the bed and gave a small wave before they both turned to leave. When both of them were out of sight, Sigurd stretched out an arm and fetched the hot drink they’d made for him. The honey soothed and the lemon opened up his throat. He felt better already after the first sip. After he finished, the Slytherin went right back to sleep. 

He awoke again just an hour later by someone gently shaking his shoulder. It seemed he was just not allowed to sleep today. Sigurd frowned as he gave up and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a pair of bright blue eyes and lots of freckles. 

“Matthias.” He sighed resigned. Who else was to expect? Sigurd stared with a tired look at his Gryffindor friend. “How did you get here?”

“I just asked Lars to let me in. How are you feeling? Do you need anything?”

“No. I’m fine.” Sigurd tried to close his eyes and go back to sleep, maybe Matthias would disappear then. 

“Seriously? It doesn’t look that way, and I heard from Tino that you’re really sick today.”

Maybe he could try to hex him? 

“I’m fine. It’s nothing you can do anyway, it’s just the flu. If I sleep enough it will eventually disappear.”

Matthias just looked sceptically back at him, as if he didn’t believe what he said. Then he smiled and moved to stand up.

“If you say so, Sigurd. Tell me if you need anything though, I’ll be back to check up on you later tonight.” Matthias bent down and ruffled Sigurd’s already terrible-looking hair before he walked out of the dormitory. Sigurd just rolled his eyes before he went back to sleep again. 

The third time he awoke that day was not because someone had disturbed him, but because not matter how hard he tried, he could not fall back asleep. His body just didn’t need any more sleep. So, he ended up just lying in bed, occasionally reaching out for a tissue to blow his nose with. He gradually became aware that he hadn’t eaten anything that day as he felt the hunger present in his stomach. Just was had gathered the courage to leave his bed, someone else entered the dormitory. 

The boy hesitated a second in the doorway before he walked down the aisle of beds. The dim light from the candles reflected his silvery hair. The family resemblance was uncanny. It was his little brother. 

“Emil? Came to take care of your sick older brother?” Sigurd tried to tease him but failed miserably as he broke into a cough after speaking. 

“No, the others made me go.” Emil looked away and frowned as a flush became evident in his cheeks. He stretched out his hands, which Sigurd could now see was carrying a tray with food on. “Here, they sent me down with your dinner.”

Sigurd smiled to himself as he began to eat. He was fortunate to have all these friends that really cared for him.


End file.
